When President Biden weighs American policy toward Gaza, may he think of a gentle scholar named Mohammed Alshannat. Alshannat is a Palestinian in Gaza who at the start of the war was working remotely on his Ph.D. dissertation in linguistics for Rhodes University in South Africa. He is the opposite of Hamas, for in his writing he has criticized suicide bombings and rocket firings. I have been texting him during the war, but his main outside contact has been Lindsay Houghton, a fellow doctoral student at Rhodes. I have trimmed for length, but he wrote in English and these are his words:Oct. 11: The situation in Gaza is very grave.

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Persons: Biden, Mohammed Alshannat, Lindsay Houghton, Houghton Organizations: Rhodes University, Rhodes Locations: Gaza, Palestinian, South Africa